Taylor Swift

Bowery/Alwyn also had credits on tracks from Swift's pandemic albums Folklore and Evermore. Other collaborators in the mix include producer Jahaan Sweet (Drake, ...

“Midnights is a collage of intensity, highs and lows and ebbs and flows. “Jack and I found ourselves back in New York, alone, recording every night, staying up late and exploring old memories and midnights past.” Midnights is the follow-up to Swift’s 2020 cozy folk double-dip Folklore and Evermore albums, marking a return to her poppier, more synth-oriented sound. Bowery/Alwyn also had credits on tracks from Swift’s pandemic albums Folklore and Evermore. The roster of songwriters also includes a few unexpected names, including actress Zoë Kravitz on two of the tracks, Del Rey, and yet another pseudonymous contribution from Swift’s boyfriend Joe Alwyn as his alter ego, William Bowery. [Taylor Swift](https://www.billboard.com/artist/taylor-swift/)‘s 10th studio album, Midnights, dropped on Friday (Oct.

The singer-songwriter's 10th studio album returns to the pop sound she left in 2019, and explores a familiar subject: how she is perceived, and how she ...

[rerecordings of her old albums](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/arts/music/taylor-swift-rerecord-albums.html), an offshoot of the ownership battles spurred by the sale of her old masters. There are songs on “Midnights” — “Midnight Rain,” “Lavender Haze” — that suggest an awareness of the ways Drake and the Weeknd have deployed overcast mood in their vocal and musical production, though she rarely commits. Of the new songs, only “Glitch” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” aren’t subtractive.) Which all prompts the question of where Swift might go as a midcareer pop star, if she were to pivot once more. “Midnights” feels like a sonic place holder, with stadiums in mind. The fleet, breezy and lightly damp “Lavender Haze” includes some sweet singing, though it feels overly reminiscent of the thumping digital folk of Maggie Rogers’s [Jack Antonoff](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/arts/music/jack-antonoff-bleachers-lorde-interview.html), constrains her voice. Throughout the album, on songs like “You’re On Your Own, Kid” and “Maroon,” Swift’s vocals are stacked together to the point of suffocation. “Snow on the Beach,” a collaboration with fellow Great American Songwriter Lana Del Rey, begins with light Christmas music energy and never really ascends. But she also thrives when writing about “Taylor Swift” — the idea, the metanarrative, the character. “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism, like some kind of congressman?” Swift muses on “Anti-Hero,” an eerily shimmering Kate Bush-esque number that’s one of the album’s high points. [Taylor Swift](https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/taylor-swift) has always been at her best when writing about Taylor Swift — she is diaristically pinpoint, a ruthless excavator of her own internal tugs of war.

The singer-songwriter's 10th studio album is a return to the pop pipeline, with production from her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.

Target, which has had a long relationship with Swift, has its own exclusive LP version (on “lavender” vinyl) as well as a CD with three exclusive tracks. The most ingenious or shameless part — take your pick — of Swift’s vinyl strategy is what she has done with the back covers. In a sense, “Midnights” is Swift’s return to the pop pipeline after her digressions of the past couple of years. Swift is releasing four standard versions of “Midnights” on vinyl, each with its own disc color and cover art; they also correspond to four variant CD versions. Swift’s friendship with Kravitz, as fans know, is close enough that she once acted as an [uncredited assistant](https://wwd.com/business-news/media/nyt-great-performers-2020-list-tv-tiktok-michaela-coel-sarah-cooper-1234672957/) on a pandemic-era remote photo shoot of Kravitz for The New York Times Magazine. [kitschy videos](https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorswift/video/7147533441326648618?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1) on TikTok that revealed song titles, one at time, taken from Ping-Pong balls in a basket, as if on a decades-old local TV spot. [making an album with Antonoff](https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a39035654/zoe-kravitz-interview-march-2022/), is listed as one of the six songwriters of the first track, “Lavender Haze,” alongside Swift, Antonoff, Mark Anthony Spears (a.k.a. But an important factor in the sales and chart prospects for “Midnights” may be Swift’s embrace of physical music formats like CDs and vinyl LPs, which, because of the way Billboard crunches data about how music is consumed, can have a major impact on chart positions. Swift’s marketing this time has involved a series of “I find myself running home to your sweet nothings.” “Folklore” won The marbled vinyl has been pressed and sorted into collectible variants.

On Swift's 10th and most challenging album, she and producer Jack Antonoff push her voice in new directions, rethinking the sonic rhetoric of first-person ...

She's still working to slacken the hold of the Old Taylor — of the many Old Taylors she's constructed through her music and celebrity. This is the kind of truth-telling that's earned Swift the devotion of her fans. For all of her kindness in the world and empathy and dedication to openness as a songwriter, Taylor Swift is, in her essence, sharp. "Labyrinth" — as good as any song inspired by one of her favorite subjects, the experience of still hanging on when you have to let go — melts her voice into myriad light streams, some as twisted as in a On "Midnight Rain" it's auto-tuned to vacillate between birdlike high notes and an almost masculine lower register, punctuating the story the verses tell of a young woman outgrowing a relationship with a sound that evokes that process of unfolding into a new self. is the kind of story song only Swift can write, dipping into gel-pen poetry to cultivate a swoony mood, then focusing on a scene of romantic persuasion and betrayal drawn so acutely that it stings. Usually she's explaining every move she makes, but here the music pulls her into the eternal now of her emotions, working against her persistent impulse to make sense of them. Sharpness is also key to Swift's perspective, surfacing in her love of the telling detail, of the rejoinder that cuts through whatever bulls*** the object of her love/hate has burdened her with. In the evening, with her lover nearby, does she vape a little Lavender Haze CBD Rosin and focus on the quietude creeping into her body beneath the relentless chatter of her thoughts? On Midnights she worked exclusively with her soulmate producer Jack Antonoff, bringing in only a handful of collaborators (the most notable is [Lana Del Rey](https://www.npr.org/artists/145913023/lana-del-rey), who gives great femme energy on "Snow On The Beach"), burrowing into a sound that might be called ahistorical chillout music. And then, in the studio, can she bring a lyric built on questions, turn to her trusted collaborator and say, "I don't care if this song is a hit, I want it to be weird"?

Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' album: read every song ranked, from 'Anti-Hero' to 'Snow on the Beach'!

“Anti-Hero” is ripe for stadium shout-alongs and TikTok lip syncs; it was designed for the moment, and built to last. Ornately constructed and brilliantly self-effacing, “Mastermind” demonstrates Swift’s songwriting wit at the end of the album, the words “I’m only cryptic and Machiavellian ‘cause I care!” echoing in the mind as Midnights comes to an end. Get ready for “Vigilante Shit” to become one of Swift’s all-time fan favorite tracks, and for good reason: the vengeance declaration, during which the superstar takes aim at an enemy and helps other women do the same, is stripped-down in its cutthroat approach, with deep-bubbling beats and synths that swirl around Swift’s proudly deployed venom. That pitched-down voice that opens “Midnight Rain,” then acts as a call-and-response partner to Swift throughout the song? From the whirring modular synth to the sumptuous backing vocals (courtesy of Zoë Kravitz, in part), “Lavender Haze” sizzles as a piece of expertly arranged rhythmic pop, with Swift knowing exactly how to slide above the beats. The prettiest song on Midnights also happens to be Swift’s most intimate moment on the album: “Labyrinth” is stately and ethereal, with electronic lines skittering around Swift’s voice as she fears that she’s falling in love again. Detailed memories steeped in vulnerability, missed-chance romance, feelings evolving along with the words of the refrain — so many of Swift’s songwriting hallmarks show up on “Maroon,” and their impact hasn’t dulled one bit. The hushed beauty that marked parts of Swift’s Folklore/Evermore era can be heard on “Sweet Nothing,” an understated ode to the calming presence of a relationship as the world seemingly spins out of control. A story of refusing to settle into early-thirties ennui, “Bejeweled” zips along with purpose, the plinking synths serving as connective tissue before bursting into sparklers above Swift’s hooks. Don’t let the muted beginning and subtle instrumentation fool you: “You’re On Your Own, Kid” snowballs as Swift’s frustrations compound, and eventually reaches one of the album’s most effective crescendos. Even if “Question…?” doesn’t fully congeal, the song boasts some fascinating tidbits to pore over. [wrote](https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch1Ed_Su6Qw/?hl=en) in August while announcing the project, “a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.

With its confident songwriting and understated synth-pop, Swift's sophisticated 10th album indicates that she no longer feels she has to compete with her ...

Last time she broke cover with new material, she released [Folklore](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/24/taylor-swift-folklore-review-bombastic-pop-makes-way-for-emotional-acuity) and [Evermore](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/11/taylor-swift-evermore-rich-alt-rock-and-richer-character-studies), two pandemic-fuelled albums of tasteful folk-rock produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner. There’s an appealing confidence about this approach, a sense that Swift no longer feels she has to compete on the same terms as her peers. Everything has been [pored over for potential information](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/14/taylor-swift-celebrate-album-release-midnights-pop-acclaim) about its contents, up to and including the kind of eye shadow she wears on the album cover. Meanwhile, Anti-Hero offers a litany of small-hours self-loathing set to music that feels not unlike the glossy 80s rock found on Swift’s Elsewhere, if the Swift you love is Swift in vengeful mode, settling scores with a side-order of You’re So Vain-esque who’s-this-about? [more of the same](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/16/go-easy-on-me-why-pop-has-got-so-predictable): building an immediately recognisable brand in a world where tens of thousands of new tracks are added to streaming services every day. It’s an album that steadfastly declines to deal in the kind of neon-hued bangers that pop stars usually return with, music brash enough to cut through the hubbub. In fact, Midnights delivers her firmly from what she called the “folklorian woods” of her last two albums back to electronic pop. There are filtered synth tones, swoops of dubstep-influenced bass, trap and house-inspired beats and effects that warp her voice to a point of androgyny on Midnight Rain and Labyrinth, the latter a leading choice given the preponderance of lyrics that protest gender stereotyping, or “that 1950s shit they want from me”, as Lavender Haze puts it. [Taylor Swift](https://www.theguardian.com/music/taylor-swift)’s 10th studio album, Midnights. It’s an approach that Midnights’ one marquee-name guest, [Lana Del Rey](https://www.theguardian.com/music/lana-del-rey), knows a lot about, but not one to which Swift has adhered. Instead, breadcrumbs of mysterious hints and visual clues are very gradually dropped via the artist’s social media channels.

On Midnights song Labrinth, Taylor Swift discloses a shocking opinion: She really doesn't like elevators.

No word yet on whether this will affect [her approach to planes](https://www.vulture.com/2022/08/taylor-swift-private-jet-emissions-response.html). [Midnights](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/taylor-swift-midnights-album-stream.html)), Taylor Swift discloses a number of intriguing takes: on “Karma,” she says that “karma” is like “a cat, purring on my lap”; on “Anti-Hero,” she says that she sometimes thinks “everybody is a sexy baby”; and, on the album’s tenth track, “Labyrinth,” Taylor slowly and softly tells us a story about falling in love by relating it to … Almost one minute in, she sings, “You know how scared I am of elevators / never trust it if it rises fast / it can’t last.” Taylor has been in an elevator at least twice prior to this song — once while dressed [as a “pegacorn” for Halloween](https://www.thecut.com/2014/10/taylor-swift-is-trick-or-treating-in-an-elevator.html) in 2014, and once [with Taylor Lautner in Valentine’s Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRbVrY5DDqk) — so, either something changed or she was secretly hiding how much she disliked them. On TS10 (a.k.a. Breaking: Claustrophobia just fell to its knees.

The vocals remain distinctive but the songs could do with more vividly told stories.

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(AP) -- Taylor Swift “Midnights,” (Republic Records). “All of me changed like midnight,” Taylor Swift confesses halfway through her latest album, ...

The album treads aggressively familiar territory—but with new wisdom and confidence. By Spencer Kornhaber. A portrait of Taylor Swift. Beth Garrabrant.

On the delightfully trollish “Anti-Hero”—“Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I’m a monster on the hill”—she makes the highly specific insecurities of a celebrity land as a (The lovely “Snow on the Beach,” for example, is almost ruined by a pointless Janet Jackson reference.) But the concision of Swift’s songcraft and the nuances of her phrasing should keep the listener tuned in. (Please diagram this double negative: “Karma’s a relaxing thought / aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?”) For the opener, “Lavender Haze,” the cartoon-villain smolder of her voice has human creaks and squeaks. “Maroon” and “Question…?,” two songs about hot memories, churn with a near-tragic blend of energy and frustration. That knack for relatability is her superpower—one so potent that it almost makes Midnights’ insularity seem noble. [Reputation](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/11/reputation-taylor-swift-first-review/545561/) in 2017 and [Lover](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/08/taylor-swift-lover-review-faith-religion/596725/) in 2019—tinged with extremity and experimentation, brilliance and [cringe](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/04/taylor-swift-me-song-review/588118/). The concept behind the album title—Swift documenting “13 sleepless nights” over her lifetime—is an excuse to tour through old obsessions: exes, haters, feuds, her beau’s talent for distracting her from all of the above. Yet compositionally, Midnights is sleek and sturdy in a way that no previous album of hers is. Last year, she expanded an old ballad, “All Too Well,” [into a 10-minute saga](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/11/snl-taylor-swift-all-too-well-red/620706/) that flickered with controlled fury. What’s distinct about her return to synth pop is just the flavors she stirs in: oozing bass, surmountable melancholia, and the same type of confession and awkwardness that appears 45 minutes into an office happy hour. The choice of moodily distorted vocals feels especially dated; putting humanoid whale moans in an album’s first moments, as Swift and Antonoff have done, is like opening an IPAs-and-bacon bar in 2022. Transcending expectations is its own expectation, and Midnights makes clear, with modest poignance, that Swift has burned out on her own hype.

Taylor Swift revealed very little about her 10th studio album, “Midnights,” before it was released on Friday – she didn't sit for any interviews and just ...

In “Anti-Hero,” that honor went to the line, “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby / And I’m a monster on the hill.” This was a new level of candor from an album that, as [multiple critics](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/taylor-swift-review-midnights-lyrics-b2207166.html) agreed in [early reviews](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/taylor-swift-midnights-1234611211/), was pretty dark music for Swift. “I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror. “Not to sound too dark, but, like, I just struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person.” But you know, this song really is a real guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself. [usual cryptic hints](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/10/20/taylor-swift-midnights-easter-eggs/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2) about what fans could expect.

Vigilante Shit,” off Taylor Swift's new album 'Midnights,' is Swift once again wielding her pen to settle scores. This time, she targets Scooter Braun in a ...

[A half-hearted statement](https://www.vulture.com/2022/09/scooter-braun-taylor-swift-masters-regret.html) about his “regret” around the deal.) The fight over her masters had already been a winning issue: Swift came in exponentially more famous and beloved than Braun, [her rerecordings have only made her more so](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/taylor-swift-rerecorded-albums-which-album-is-next.html), and the idea that an artist should own her music adds up logically and morally. [ she wrote alone](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/taylor-swift-midnights-song-writers-credits-zoe-kravitz.html), Swift is at her venomous best. On “Vigilante Shit,” the only song on Midnights that She’s skeptical, almost mocking, when she sings, “Ladies always rise above,” in the bridge, but at the same time, that’s her attitude here. It’s a signature Swift earworm, but it’s also a motto for her celebrity. Elsewhere, she surveys the fallout from her claim on “mad woman” that [Braun, now divorced](https://www.vulture.com/2021/07/scooter-braun-divorcing-wife-yael-cohen.html), is a cheat. “Draw the cat eyes sharp enough to kill a man,” she sings, and then adds a few lines later, “They say looks can kill, and I might try.” She’s past the reflections of “mad woman” and onto throwing barbs. She’s not rising above the drama, but she is carrying herself as the winner. [Midnights, Swift’s tenth album](https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/taylor-swift-midnights-album-stream.html). “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace / ’Cause when I’d fight, you used to tell me I was brave,” Swift sang on “my tears ricochet,” seemingly to Scott Borchetta, her former champion who first signed a teenage Swift to his Big Machine label before later overseeing the sale of her catalogue to her chief nemesis, Scooter Braun. The provocatively titled “Vigilante Shit” seems to revisit [the Braun-Borchetta drama](https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/taylor-swift-scooter-braun-and-borchetta-feud-explained.html) head-on while also returning to the scorekeeping, revenge-seeking Swift we thought we might have seen the last of during folklore and evermore. Swift’s message to Braun, though, was even clearer: “I’m takin’ my time / Takin’ my time / ’Cause you took everything from me,” she sang on “mad woman.” Still, these songs were cloaked in the fictional haze of that era, far from a direct response.

Critics praise the "fantastic songs" on Midnights, but some add there is "not a smash hit in sight".

On the twinkly Bejeweled she announces that she's "going out tonight", but the beats remain sleepy and sluggish. Swift's always as elusive as she is allusive." Swift is currently gearing up for a busy few months. Otherwise Midnights sounds ready for bed." All the while she keeps things just cryptic enough to keep the tension crackling and the speculation buzzing. But it also sees her re-engage her pop sensibilities, with lyrics that explore more personal subject matters. "As Swift has returned to her archive for to undertake the project of re-recording her previous albums, it's clear slipping back into her past self has unlocked something brilliant and fresh in her songwriting," she wrote. "The subtle melodies of Midnights take time to sink their claws in," she added. "But Swift's feline vocal stealth and assured lyrical control ensure she keeps your attention. [the Guardian's Alexis Petridis said](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/21/taylor-swift-midnights-review-small-hours-pop-rich-with-self-loathing-and-stereotype-smashing) Midnights "delivers her firmly from what she called the 'folklorian woods' of her last two albums back to electronic pop". Midnights is the 32-year-old's first original album in two years and sees her return to a more mainstream sound than the more muted, acoustic tone of her previous two albums. The Guardian said Midnights is a "cool, collected and mature" record which is "packed with fantastic songs".

U.S. music superstar Taylor Swift released her 10th studio album "Midnights" on Friday, as well as additional tracks made during the record making process.

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As pop fandoms go to battle on social media wielding data about their favorite stars, Metascores averaging critical opinions have become ammunition, ...

— where he previously worked — and its [Next Gen stats platform](https://nextgenstats.nfl.com/), noting, “There is a greater crossover between sports fans and music fans today.” [top artists of the decade list](https://www.metacritic.com/feature/best-music-of-the-decade). “People used Metascores as an argument settler, a metric to put in each other’s faces,” Doyle said. 2” ranked highest with a Metascore of 90, while Juliana Hatfield’s “Pony: Total System Failure” landed lowest with a Metascore of 25. “We’re a professional outfit.” The site makes money from advertising, licensing Metascores and affiliate revenue. Passionate fan armies keep careful track of the scoreboard, and one of the most fervent is devoted to Swift, who will release her 10th studio album, [“Midnights,”](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/arts/music/taylor-swift-new-album-midnights.html) on Friday. Before they are averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critic’s perceived prestige and volume of reviews. If it’s not a case of plagiarism or fraud (which usually is self-reported from a member publication), such appeals are generally unsuccessful.” “Once you get to four reviews, then you generate the Metascore, which is an average score.” For the games section, the site sends outlets a list of questions “so you can really get to know their scoring philosophy,” he added, a process it has only recently started “for potential movies section partners.” “Every time they publish a review, you throw it in the system,” he said. Metacritic went live in January 2001 with a film vertical and a rundown of how its staff calculated Metascores. “There’s nothing quite like Taylor Swift,” Marc Doyle, 51, one of the site’s founders, said in an interview last week.

In the lead-up to the release of “Midnights,” Taylor Swift herself said this 10th record of hers was inspired by haunting late-night thoughts and, ...

(Laura Dern, the Haim sisters and Swift wrote and directed the video, which follows a Swift tortured by monsters like ghosts, bathroom scales and judgey people at parties. There is a moment of silliness about midway through, after a verse in which Swift sings about a dream she had about a future daughter-in-law who kills her for money, but Swift left her out of her will.

Her 10th album is a culmination of 16 years in the spotlight, and Taylor Swift leaves nothing unsaid.

Like a knife to the gut, “Anti-Hero” is an instant self-hate anthem for the ages. Swift is cut open, bleeding to the world in this song, proclaiming herself a “monster” in a sea of “sexy babies” (it makes sense, trust us). I’m the problem, it’s me”

Ranking the swearist lines in Taylor Swift's new album Midnights which contains some of her strongest curse words including shit, fuck, damn, and cheap-ass.

The lean-back rhythm of her patter here is Taylor trying on her most world-weary “I’m washed” posture on the album. Taylor puts a “fuckin’” right in the center of this album’s biggest singsong pop chorus, pacing out words like a metronome so that she has to hit both syllables of “fuck-in” hard (and, yes, there’s no “g”). Okay, now we’re fucking — though, really, we’re only fuckin’ because Taylor is resistant to ever pronouncing the “g” at the end of the word. [inspired by Mad Men](https://www.nme.com/news/music/taylor-swift-reveals-mad-men-inspiration-behind-midnights-track-lavender-haze-3327307) (a show that is primarily set in the ’60s, but whatever), which puts Taylor in the position of a sort of Betty Draper raging against the feminist mystique or something. She’s easing up to the bolder swears later on in the album. And for all of her use of “fucking,” she tends to only use swears as intensifiers, not as descriptors of actually explicit acts.

On the heels of her highly anticipated album 'Midnights' and the world premiere of her new music video for “Anti-Hero,” fans around the world can now visit ...

Swift also has five music videos in YouTube’s Billion Views Club, two of which (“ [Shake It Off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM)” and “ [Blank Space](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg)”) are part of a small group of videos to have crossed the 3 billion views mark. For the first time ever, Swift is inviting her fans around the world to share their anti-heroic traits to the soundtrack of the newly released track, “ [Anti-Hero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1kbLwvqugk),” only on YouTube Shorts. Her music has charted on YouTube’s Top Songs chart in over 50 markets, and her recent release of [“All Too Well [10 Minute Version] (Taylor’s Version)”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tollGa3S0o8) peaked at #1 on the Global and US charts. Once you’re ready, head over to YouTube Shorts to start your own #TSAntiHeroChallenge creation and follow these simple steps: An anti-heroic trait could be as simple as always grabbing the last slice of pizza, clapping at the end of movies, always putting your feet on the car dashboard, using the same word to start your daily Wordle, leaving your clean laundry in the basket until the next time you do it, pretending you didn’t already watch the next episode of the series you watch with your pals, or even treating your cat like a human. The #TSAntiHeroChallenge is inspired by one of Swift’s favorite songs ever written, track #3 on her new album.

Picture of Taylor Swift greeting fans. Wesley Lapointe / Getty; The Atlantic. October 21, 2022. Share. Taylor ...

And the thing that got people excited in the music industry is more people saw him in Fortnite than would see him in a real-life concert. So it’s not a virtual world, but it’s a virtual community. And it’s not real time, in the sense of people hanging out in the same space. But because they don’t have avatars and they’re not meeting in a virtual space, it’s not technically a metaverse? Are Swifties actually living more of a true metaverse experience than the people using that platform? But the virtual community has to be as strong as the technology piece. In the book, Stephenson even mentions that it’s mostly just the wealthy who use VR headsets, and regular folks just use a regular computer. Au: Well, the fact that she’s created this kind of virtual office for herself, that’s—let’s call it metaverse-ish, especially if she ends up using it somehow in the future. It looks like it could be something out of The Sims or something. She has, in a way, created a virtual universe in which fans can experience the launch. That’s another thing that drives me crazy: the assumption that it has to be in VR. He is currently writing a book called [Why the Metaverse Matters](https://venturebeat.com/games/wagner-james-au-will-tell-us-why-the-metaverse-matters-in-a-book/).

The pop singer confronts her own flaws and calls everyone a “sexy baby” on the lead single from Midnights.

[1989](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-1989/), the neurotic image analysis of [reputation](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-reputation/), the dense lyricism of [folklore](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-folklore/) and [evermore](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-evermore/). But after so many years of defending the moral high ground—from ex-boyfriends, [rappers](https://pitchfork.com/news/66882-taylor-swift-kanye-and-kim-are-lying-committing-character-assassination/), [label executives](https://pitchfork.com/news/taylor-swifts-music-ownership-controversy-with-scooter-braun-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters)—Swift [started to admit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KpKc3C9V3w) her own fallibility. Swift and trusted collaborator [Jack Antonoff](https://pitchfork.com/artists/32408-bleachers/) keep the production simple—a methodical drum loop, simmering synths—focusing in on a series of vignettes in which Swift is haunted by past mistakes.

Taylor Swift moves away from the experimental magic of folklore and evermore and delivers a giddy, self-reflective crusade with Midnights.

After multiple listens—and wishing that the 3 AM songs were part of the core album—it’s evident she embraces the chaos (what’s new, right?). The album illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the Swift-Antonoff partnership—the duo tends to “regress” every so often but knows how to tap into their forte, too. As it turns out, Midnights is an eccentric blend of [Lover](https://www.avclub.com/taylor-swift-is-done-proving-herself-on-the-resonant-lo-1837578581) and [1989](https://www.avclub.com/with-1989-taylor-swift-finally-grows-up-1798181732), with a dose of [Reputation](https://www.avclub.com/taylor-swift-has-a-big-drunken-night-out-on-reputation-1820342108)’s retribution for good measure. There are more gems here like, “I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror / It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero,” and the polarizing line, “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby.” ( On three of the tracks, she collaborates with The National’s Aaron Dessner yet again, including on “The Great War,” which features poetic imagery and lyrics about surviving the battlefield of a tumultuous bond and is enhanced by Dessner’s production. And then there’s “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” a fiery but tragic indictment of the older man she dated at 19 who took advantage of her naïveté. An early standout, it charts her exhaustion from giving in to her worst thoughts and impulses (“When my depression works the graveyard shift / All of the people I’ve ghosted stand there in the room / I should not be left to my own devices”). The singer’s “sleepless nights” have spawned an odyssey that’s cutthroat and shimmery. Swift opens Midnights with “Lavender Haze,” a definite bop that celebrates her unperturbed love life (reminiscent of “Call It What You Want To).” And she closes the core album with a pair of tracks that cleverly confirm her relationship, starting with track 12, the amorous ballad “Sweet Nothing,” co-written by Swift and William Bowery (Joe Alwyn’s pseudonym). [Taylor Swift revealed she categorizes her lyrics](https://www.avclub.com/taylor-swift-new-insight-songwriting-process-1849562389) in three distinct ways: Quill, fountain pen, and glitter gel pen, conjuring the perfect weapon to rousingly convey her words. That’s immediately followed by track 13, “Mastermind,” in which a Machiavellian Swift confesses her schemes to secure his love. That’s not a complaint, of course, because Swift is the certified queen of serving up bangers.

With the release of her new album Midnights, Taylor Swift is poised to reclaim her weekly record-sales title from Harry Styles, who eclipsed her previous ...

[ Kyle Devine](https://www.hf.uio.no/imv/english/people/aca/tenured/kylerd/), a professor of musicology at the University of Oslo’s School of Environmental Humanities, and the author of [ Decomposed: the Political Ecology of Music](https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262537780/decomposed/). The music industry is starting to pay attention to sustainability, says Devine. “Especially with her fan base, a younger generation that is pretty thirsty for change when it comes to climate issues.” Evolution Music’s first compostable 12-inch, released last month, featured tracks from REM’s Michael Stipe and the U.K.’s “If people started listening to records as much as they do streaming, vinyl would be much more carbon intensive,” says Devine. For CDs, it would take five hours of running time. Electronic music files are stored on servers that run on a continuous stream of energy. Records, in this case, refer to vinyl, the kind your (grand) parents used to listen to, and now, apparently, your tween-age daughters too. Superfans can assemble all four into functional wall art with the addition of a clock kit that sells for $49. [ estimate](https://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2021/11/how-environmentally-damaging-is-music-streaming) that streaming an album for just 17 hours would produce the same amount of carbon emissions as creating a vinyl record. What ever happened to album art that could be unfolded into a poster? Vinyl records have been outselling CDs since 2021, which, coincidently, was when Swift’s previous album, Red, broke the record for first week vinyl sales.

Taylor Swift's new concept album about 'that mystifying, mad hour' feels unsurprisingly expert and alert.

(If you missed the cheap thrill of reorganizing the paparazzi photos on your conspiracy whiteboard, “Midnights” has plenty of “is X song about Y guy?” games to play, too, you sicko.) Love is the result of that intentionality. “I picked the petals, he loves me not,” she sings on one of her new songs, “ [You’re On Your Own, Kid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cboN_o7CvU),” addressing an anonymous flame without a blink. Taylor Swift has this dream where “my daughter-in-law kills me for the money — she thinks I left them in the will. The family gathers around and reads it, and then someone screams out, ‘She’s laughing up at us from hell!’” Maybe that’s why Swift is the biggest pop star drawing breath in this waking world and the rest of us are not. You have this dream where you’re all alone, and you’re rolling a big doughnut, and there’s this snake wearing a vest.

Taylor Swift's Mightnights album has dropped and there are theories.

It’s all due to one lyric where she sings about getting caught in her partner’s “flames” - something the magazine reports could be a nod to the “twin fire signs” lyric in State of Grace. During her acceptance speech she told fans that as thanks for the award win, she had something for them in return. Swift wrote while describing the inspiration behind her new album: “We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. She told fans on Instagram last month the song Lavender Haze is about the couple’s attempt to navigate – and ignore - “weird rumours” released in the press. In Anit-Hero she sings that sometimes her “depression works the graveyard shift”. And I will tell you more at midnight.” “Surprise!” she said in an Instagram post, adding, “I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour. Another song that references her worries keeping her up at night is Karma. Glamour Magazine reported that Midnight Rain is clearly about an ex and claim it could be about Gyllenhaal. Another ex-boyfriend who seemingly gets a mention is Harry Styles in, Question…? Under his pseudo, William Bowery, Alwyn co-wrote the track, with many suspecting the song is a window into their notoriously private relationship. There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13.

A deep dive into Taylor Swift's new song 'Mastermind,' in which she pokes fun at her own public image of being overly controlling.

In this last chorus, Swift actually pokes a hole in her airtight and individualist scheming: while she had anticipated her success to be a one-woman job, the subject of the song was a willing accomplice the whole time. We love Swift precisely because she can so believably and fully embody both ends of the emotional spectrum: that she can be the scorned lover or the heartbreaker, the archer or the prey. This is a common thread in Midnights, with “Anti-Hero” focused on her many avenues of self-doubt. There’s so much sadness laced in this one quick and breathy line—a moment of vulnerability reminiscent of the storytelling from her folklore/evermore era. [vibe has shifted](https://www.thecut.com/2022/02/a-vibe-shift-is-coming.html), and Taylor Swift has retreated from the [woods](https://time.com/5871159/taylor-swift-folklore-explained/) to sulk in her city apartment in the [wee small hours of the morning](https://entertainment.time.com/2006/11/02/the-all-time-100-albums/slide/in-the-wee-small-hours/). [30 Rock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm-ZF9AfN40) and is a sly commentary on the long history of women being portrayed as little more than helpless sex objects in Hollywood monster movies. In “Mastermind,” Swift seems to argue that for women, being overly calculating is the only way to win in a cutthroat world. [Swift told the Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/10/20/taylor-swift-midnights-easter-eggs/). In “Dear John,” which she wrote near the start of her career, she’s a mere pawn: “I lived in your chess game, but you changed the rules every day,” she sings. (From her 2006 debut album: “He’s got a one-hand feel on the steering wheel/ The other on my heart.”) Then there’s the real-life room of it all: Swift and Alwyn are rumored to have met at the 2016 Met Gala, and there are many rooms there! So “once upon a time” is charged with suspense: it suggests a “happily ever after” on its surface, but anyone deeply familiar with Swift’s work would expect it to end instead on the “cold hard ground.”

New album makes it clear that Swift has taken a step forward in the indie-pop genre.

But Swift presents “Midnights” as something different: a collection of songs that don’t necessarily have to go together, but fit together because she has declared them products of late night inspiration. Track one, “Lavender Haze,” pairs a muffled club beat and high-pitched backing vocals from Antonoff with stand-out, beckoning melody from Swift. And like always, we’re just along for the thrilling late-night ride. [the 13 tracks of “Midnights,”](https://apnews.com/article/what-to-stream-October-2022-midnights-music-movies-TV-f70b362a01e904e5b23adeb62c822dd0) a self-aware Swift shows off her ability to evolve again. “Midnight Rain” could be a thesis statement for the project she’s described as songs written during “13 sleepless nights,” an appropriate approach to the concept album for someone who has long had a lyrical appreciation for late nights (think “Style”: “midnight, you come and pick me up, no headlights…”). The song’s chorus begins: “He was sunshine, I was midnight rain.” And continues: “He wanted it comfortable, I wanted that pain.

Here are the most popular unconfirmed fan theories about which celebrities Swift is calling out on Midnights, from John Mayer to Kanye West.

“I would’ve stayed on my knees / And I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil at nineteen,” she sings in the chorus, and the sentient bears a striking similarity to Speak Now track “Dear John,” which was also believed to be about Mayer due to the title. While the superstar doesn’t mention anyone directly, fans on Twitter noticed a particular verse: “She needed cold hard proof, so I gave her some / She had the envelope, where you think she got it from? 21), and fans know that the pop superstar is not afraid of some subtle, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shade in her music.

The singer released her highly anticipated album Midnights last night at (of course) midnight. On the track “Vigilante Shit,” Swift returns to her Reputation- ...

[Bella Hadid](https://www.vogue.com/article/bella-hadid-met-gala-2017-red-carpet-dress-alexander-wang?mbid=social_twitter) was sewed into for the 2017 Met Gala. On the track “Vigilante Shit,” Swift returns to her Reputation-era themes of vengeance, with the refrain “lately I’ve been dressing for revenge.” Ah, the fantasy of looking absolutely perfect in front of someone who has wronged you. The singer released her highly anticipated album Midnights last night at (of course) midnight.

Taylor Swift returned to pop on Friday with the debut of her 10th studio album, a record called Midnights inspired by her late-night thoughts, ...

She later appears in a coffin at her own funeral. The pop record followed folk albums Folklore and Evermore, which Swift recorded while quarantining during the Covid-19 pandemic. Taylor Swift returned to pop on Friday with the debut of her 10th studio album, a record called Midnights inspired by her late-night thoughts, and she also released a video of her "nightmare scenarios" in the genre of a horror flick.

Indeed, Swift's tune "Vigilante Shit" seems to draw on some similar inspiration, with a verse featuring lyrics about delivering "cold hard proof" to another nameless character's ex-wife, saying, "Now she gets the house, gets the kids, gets the pride," ...

That's because the artist's latest album, Midnights, happens to include an homage to [revenge dressing](https://www.townandcountrymag.com/style/fashion-trends/g39128561/revenge-dress-meaning-history-princess-diana-julia-fox/)—an art perhaps most iconically associated with Princess Diana when the royal all but single-handedly brought the [concept of the revenge dress](https://www.townandcountrymag.com/style/fashion-trends/a36120274/princess-diana-revenge-glamour-trend/) into our cultural lexicon in 1994, with the little black dress seen around the world. That infamous LBD—an off-the-shoulder Christina Stambolian gown that hugged the Princess of Wales flawlessly—was worn just days after Prince Charles admitted to infidelity on national television, and was seen by the public as a very pointed snub to Diana's then-husband. It's not the first time Swift has been linked in the public mind with Diana's famous dress—fans previously noticed a marked similarity between the gown and a dress that the singer-songwriter wore on a November 2021 episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers when she was promoting her version of the album Red.